May 2014 BATFN: Palm Oil’s Impact on Indonesian Communities

The next BATFN will take place May 1, 2014 at 6pm at the RAN office, 425 Bush Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA (nearest BART stop Montgomery). The event is open to the public.

We’re pleased to announce that Ratri Kusumohartono from Sawit Watch will be presenting:

Ratri Kusumohartono who works for Sawit Watch, one of Indonesia’s leading palm oil advocacy groups, will be discussing Sawit Watch’s work with local communities in Indonesia who are resisting or who have lost their forest and livelihoods due to large-scale oil palm expansion. She will also highlight some recent issues in Indonesia’s palm oil industry, including the latest fires in Riau, the forest moratorium and food security, and labor conditions on palm oil plantations.

Sawit Watch was founded in 1998 and since then, has built a network of over 130 individual members and local contacts working with dozens of local communities in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, Papua and small islands. Sawit Watch’s beneficiaries are local communities, indigenous people, oil palm smallholders and labors. Sawit Watch’s first mandate is based on the call to support local communities who are fighting or have lost their forest and livelihoods because of large-scale oil palm expansion.

As palm oil industry is growing, negative impacts due to its existence are expanding. Beside communities’ loss of lands and livelihoods, smallholders and laborers are also exploited by large scale plantations. In order to address this, Sawit Watch is currently also working and supporting smallholders and laborers to strengthen their positions./ul>

Doors open at 6pm. The presentation will take place around 7pm.

If you are interested in attending the event, it would be helpful if you RSVP via the Facebook event page. The event is open to everyone so feel free to forward to your friends.

About BATFN

BATFN is an informal social network in the Bay Area broadly interested in tropical forest conservation and ecology. We gather monthly, typically for a happy hour beverage in the Peninsula area. The event is free and we provide snacks and drinks. Think Green Drinks but with a focus on forests.

Our goal is to foster peer-to-peer networking in a relaxed atmosphere where ideas, data, and collaboration flow freely. This is a great opportunity to connect with media, scientists, economists, foundations, activists, artists and many others thinking about these issues. Everyone is welcome! It is a great way to get in touch with other people working on similar interests or to learn more about current issues and initiatives in forest conservation.